March 25: Top news at 2 pm

Resident doctors in Maharashtra call off stir; resume duties

Resident doctors across Maharashtra today called off their five-day protest against a spate of assaults and resumed duties following an ultimatum from the Bombay High Court and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The state government had also given an assurance to the protesting doctors that their demands will be looked into. “Most of the doctors have resumed duties. The OPDs have also become operational per schedule and resident doctors paid a visit to general wards as well. We are hopeful of things getting back to normal so on,” said Dr Avinash Supe, Dean of civic-run KEM hospital in Mumbai. Resident doctors in Sion and Nair hospitals too have resumed work, he added. More than 4,500 resident doctors had gone on "mass leave" since Monday after a series of assault took place on resident doctors in various parts of the state, affecting health services in OPDs and general wards at government and municipal-run hospitals.

EC transfers Chennai police commissioner

The Election Commission has ordered the transfer of Chennai Police Commissioner S George following a complaint by DMK, ahead of the RK Nagar Assembly bypoll in Tamil Nadu. Sources in the poll panel said George's transfer order was issued last night. Karan Singh has been appointed as the new city police chief, they said. The bypoll to the prestigious RK Nagar constituency is scheduled for April 12. It was necessitated following the demise of then Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa last year.

Meat processing plant at Kairana sealed

A large meat processing plant at Kairana town in Shamli district has been sealed after district authorities found "irregularities" during checking. A team of district officials led by subdivisional magistrate Vijay Prakash conducted the checking at Meem Agro Foods yesterday and sealed it, circle officer Bhushan Verma said. Meanwhile, several meat shops which were allegedly running without licenses were closed down in Thana Bhawan, Jalalabad and Shamli towns yesterday, he said. In Muzaffarnagar district, several such shops were shut down in Budhana, Khatoli, Shahpur and Charthawal towns. Slaughterhouses and meat shops allegedly running illegally have been closed down across Uttar Pradesh after a ban by the Aditya Nath Yogi government.

Yechury wants data on amount of old currency deposited

The CPI(M) today attacked the NDA government for not making public the data on the amount of junked currency deposited in banks post note ban. Taking to Twitter, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury asked whether the Modi government is "that incompetent" that it is yet to come out with the numbers. "Why don't we have the data on amount of old currency notes deposited even now? Is the Modi government that incompetent? Or complicit?" he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on November 8 last year announced scrapping of old Rs 500 and Rs1,000 currency notes. NRIs and those who could not deposit the invalidated high value notes because they were travelling abroad can deposit the old currencies with RBI until March 31 subject to verification.

White man shouts 'go back to Lebanon' to Sikh-American girl

A Sikh-American girl was harassed on a subway train in New York when a white man, mistaking her to be from the Middle East, allegedly shouted "go back to Lebanon" and "you don't belong in this country," the latest in a series of hate crimes against people of South-Asian origin. Rajpreet Heir was taking the subway train to a friend's birthday party in Manhattan this month when the white man began shouting at her, according to a report in The New York Times. Heir recounted the ordeal in a video for a Times section called 'This Week in Hate', which highlights hate crimes and harassment around the country since the election of US President Donald Trump. Heir said she was looking at her phone when the white man shouted at her. Heir, a Sikh, said she was born 30 miles from Lebanon, not the Middle Eastern country but a namesake city in the American state of Indiana.

Case against youth for objectionable post against UP CM

A case has been lodged against a youth here for his alleged objectionable post on Facebook against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Hindu religion. On the complaint of one Akshit Agarwal, an FIR was yesterday lodged against Shahzad Akram under section 153 A (promoting enmity between groups) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the IPC and IT Act yesterday, inspector in-charge Brij Mohan Giri said today. Agarwal had alleged that Akram had posted some objectionable material against the chief minister and Hindu religion which has hurt the sentiments of the Hindus, he said.

CBEC to be renamed CBIC under GST regime

The apex policy making body for indirect taxes, CBEC is being rechristened as the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) in the run up to the Goods and Services Tax regime to be rolled out from July 1, a Finance Ministry statement said. CBIC would supervise the work of all its field formations and directorates and assist the government in policy making in relation to GST, continuing central excise levy and customs functions, it said. "Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has approved the reorganisation of the field formations of the CBEC for the implementation of GST," it added. The existing formations of central excise and service tax under the CBEC have been re-organised to implement and enforce the provisions of the proposed GST Laws, it added.